Beliefs about Apocalypses and utopias are an important facet of Christianideological frameworks; in the here-and-now, new evangelical Christians inthe Global South also often make radical breaks with pre-existing forms ofsocial relations. It has been widely noted that traditional kinship, genderand generational hierarchies, and political and economic relations arechallenged and restructured by Christian beliefs and practices, enablingnew Christians to modernize and capitalize. The practices and beliefsassociated with prosperity gospels, sacrifices, austerity, abrogatingsocial ties with non-believers, transform the social structure of religiouscommunities. But what does capitalism have to do with heaven the end ofthe world? What are the relationships between capitalist relations,imagined religious communities, and their imagined futures? How and why dopractices intended to prepare believers for their end often reinforce thespread of capitalist relations in the mundane world while at other timesisolating believers from those very relations? This panel examines thedialectical relationship between transformations in social practices andeschatological beliefs about radical transformations in specific casesamong Evangelical Christians in the Global South.

Please submit a 250-word abstract for 15-minute presentation to Pilar Raupkr205_at_nyu.edu by Friday, March 28, 2008.